SCAPEGOATING has been on, in the Global Meltdown and recession, since mid-March 2008, culminating in the Lehman bros scacrifice mid-September: sincerely, searched for, wanted by their Padre Padrone in person, Mr Fuld (pane al pane e vino al vino). But why should Mr Fuld become now a scapegoat, à la Far West – as it happens in some sectors of the public opinion and scapegoating media?.

We desperately need a SUPERIOR civilisation, not going back to Far West and homo homini wolf ones.

Since this goat, carrying the sins of the people placed on it, is sent away to perish [1], the word “scapegoat” has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes.

Girard’s socio-religious theory

The Christian anthropologist René Girard has provided a reconstruction of the scapegoat theory. In Girard’s view, it is humankind, not God, who has the problem with violence. Humans are driven by desire for that which another has or wants (mimetic desire). This causes a triangulation of desire and results in conflict between the desiring parties. This mimetic contagion increases to a point where society is at risk; it is at this point that the scapegoat mechanism[6] is triggered. This is the point where one person is singled out as the cause of the trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. Social order is restored as people are contented that they have solved the cause of their problems by removing the scapegoated individual, and the cycle begins again. Girard contends that this is what happened in the case of Jesus. The difference in this case, Girard believes, is that he was resurrected from the dead and shown to be innocent; humanity is thus made aware of its violent tendencies and the cycle is broken. Satan, who is seen to be manifested in the contagion, is cast out. Thus Girard’s work is significant as a re-construction of the Christus Victoratonement theory.

René Girard: “Are the Gospels Mythical?” in First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, April 1996. See also “August/September Letters” in First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, August/September 1996, for follow-up correspondence. Accessed 24 November 2008

Joseph Bottum: “Girard among the Girardians” in First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, March 1996. A review of Violence Unveiled by Gil Bailie, The Sacred Game by Cesareo Bandera, The Gospel and the Sacred by Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly, and The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred by James G. Williams. Accessed 24 November 2008

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